Australia ends on top

Sampath BANDARA reporting from Australia

GAMES: The hosts Australia with a total of 84 gold medals took major honours at the 18th Commonwealth Games which was concluded following a colourful closing ceremony with the participation of Bollywood film stars in Melbourne yesterday.

Australia finished on top of the final medals tally having also won a total of 69 silver medals and 68 bronze medals.

They were followed by England who bagged 36 gold medals, 40 silver medals and 34 bronze medals.

Canada secured the third place with a total of 26 gold medals, 23 silver medals and 31 bronze medals. India were placed fourth with 22 gold medals, 17 silver medals and 11 bronze medals. Sri Lanka with a solitary gold medal finished in the 22nd place out of a total of 71 participating countries.

Aisharya Rai, Rani Mukarji, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta and Ali Khan were among the Bollywood star who participated in the closing ceremony which was watched by a estimated crowd of 80,000.

The participation of the Bollywood stars was a significant one as the next Commonwealth Games will be held in India in 2010.